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CWRU's Mather Gallery will celebrate the work of Zaida del Rio,
one of Cuba's foremost contemporary artists, when the gallery
opens its new season with "La Persistencia de la Memoria: The
Persistence of Memory" at noon September 13.
The exhibit of paintings and textiles is free and open to the
public from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays. An opening reception at 5
p.m. September 13 features del Rio's sister, Maria del Carmen
del Rio, as guest lecturer and installer of the work. The Latino
dance troupe, Ritmo y Raza, also will perform.
An artist's celebration will be held at 5 p.m. October 4 at the
conclusion of the show. At that time del Rio will present a talk
and slide show.
"A painter, illustrator, ceramist, engraver and poet, Zaida's
works are characterized by enchanting poetic imagery," said Jacqueline
Nanfito, CWRU associate professor of modern languages and literatures.
Nanfito organized the exhibit with support from CWRU's Flora
Stone Mather Alumnae Association and the department of modern
languages and literatures.
The exhibit coincides with the Baker-Nord Center's Humanities
Week celebration, September 15-22 and celebrations for National
Hispanic Heritage Month. This year's theme for Humanities Week
is "The Americas." Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory,
will give the keynote lecture at 5 p.m. September 20, in Ford
Auditorium.
As a specialist in Latin American literature, Nanfito says she
has a passion for the arts and continually uses them to promote
a greater global understanding on campus and in the community
of the significant and distinctive accomplishments by Latin American
women writers and artists.
Three years ago, Nanfito organized a Mather Gallery exhibit on
Chilean arpilleras (protest cloths), owned by Chilean poet Marjorie
Agosin. The poet will return to CWRU for Humanities Week to speak
September 21 about her musical and theatrical production of Tres
Vidas, which explores the lives of Alfonsina Storni, Rufina
Amaya and Frida Kahlo. Tres Vidas will be performed September
22 in Harkness Chapel. The work premiered a year ago at M.I.T.
and since has traveled to off-Broadway and on tour.
Nanfito describes del Rio's work as "communicating entire worlds
in which ethereal goddesses and celestial figures dance with a
movement similar to the rhythm of nature and heavens."
"The vibrant exuberance of the pictorial imagery of her works
is self-consuming," Nanfito said.
Clevelanders recently saw some of her work. She was one of four
Cuban artists invited by Robin Van Lear of the Cleveland Museum
of Art to produce work for this year's Parade the Circle. Headpieces
and costumes from Parade the Circle as well as some 20 watercolors
will make up the Mather exhibit. The Cuban artist received her
training in the arts at the Escuela Nacional de Arte and the Instituto
Superior del Artes, both in Havana, and at the Ecole Beaux Arts
in Paris.
Prior to her work with Parade the Circle, del Rio completed a
mural at the University of California Los Angeles. She will leave
for an artist-in-residence at Smith College at the end of her
Mather Gallery show.
For information, call 368-2679.
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